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A  UTHOR: 


SALTER,  WILLIAM  M. 


TITLE: 


THE  FIRST  THING  IN  LIFE 


PLACE: 


PHILADELPHIA 


DA  TE: 


1899 


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ETHICAL  ADDRESSES     ^^ 


SERIES  VI.    No.  I. 


JANUARY.  X899. 


t.  -        mJi^ 

The  First  Thing  in  Life 


BY 


WILLIAM    M.    SALTER. 


V 


PHILADELPHIA ; 

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ii 


1 


^ 


^i> 


*i 


i 


THE  FIRST  THING  IN  LIFE.* 

BY   WILLIAM    M.    SALTER. 

In  a  grave  moment  the  question  may  arise,  What  is 
the  first,  the  most  important,  thing  in  life  ?  Ordinarily 
we  are  concerned  about  other  things  ;  often  we  may  be 
troubled  and  anxious  in  our  minds- — and  yet  at  just  such 
times  we  may  ask,  what  is  best  worth  troubling  about, 
what  among  the  things  we  care  for  is  that  thing  we  could 
least  afford  to  miss  or  lose  ?  And  perhaps  we  cannot 
answer  at  once.  May  we  not  at  an  hour  like  this-^an 
hour  set  apart  for  reflection  over  the  higher  concerns  of 
life — take  it  up  ?  What  is  that  first,  that  essential  thing 
in  life,  which  if  we  have  we  may  put  up  with  the  loss 
of  many  other  things,  but  if  we  have  not,  we  have 
missed  the  mark  altogether  ? 

Sometimes  it  is  said  the  first  thing  in  life  is  to  be 
well.  Health  is  the  best  wealth,  said  Emerson.  Self- 
preservation  is  the  first  law  of  nature,  is  a  common  say- 
ing. And  in  one  sense  it  is  true.  We  must  surely 
have  a  measure  of  health  if  we  are  to  do  anything  or 
become  anything  in  the  world.  No  one  can  over- 
estimate this  blessing.  One  of  the  worst  things  about 
the  lack  of  health  is  that  we  have  to  spend  a  great  deal 
of  valuable  time  in  simply  trying  to  get  it.  And  yet 
the  very  fact  that  we  can  speak  of  it  in  this  way  shows 
that  we  do  not  regard  it  as  an  end  in  itself.  No  one 
could  sa}'  that  the  worst  thing  about  a  lack  of  knowl- 

*  A  Lecture  given  before  the  Ethical  Societies  of  Philadelphia,  Chi- 
cago and  St.  Louis. 

(0 


THE    FIRST   THING   IN   LIFE. 


edge  is  that  we  have  to  spend  a  great  deal  of  valuable 
time  in  trying  to  get  it.  Health  (or  some  measure  of  it) 
is  the  possibility  of  doing  anything.  Without  this  ma- 
terial basis  of  life  we  are  nothing — our  loves,  our 
thoughts,  our  strivings  of  every  sort  vanish  away.  But  it 
is  a  basis  for  something.  With  our  roots  in  the  ground 
we  are  to  grow.  On  this  foundation  we  are  to  build  a 
structure.  Suppose  a  person  were  so  anxious  about  the 
foundation  that  he  forgot  to  build  his  house  :  he  would 
not  be  more  irrational  than  one  who  viewed  a  perfect 
physical  condition  as  anything  else  than  a  chance,  an 
opportunity,  for  something  beyond  itself.  Plainly,  all  we 
can  mean  by  *'  first "  in  connection  with  health  is,  first 
in  order  of  time — just  as  the  foundation  must  come  first, 
although  the  reason  for  the  foundation  is  the  house. 

The  same  line  of  thought  applies  to  the  idea  of  get- 
ting-on,  of  money-making,  that  we  are  so  familiar  with 
in  this  country.  Undoubtedly  this  as  a  matter  of  fact 
is  the  first  thing  in  life  to  many  people  among  us. 
Yet  no  one  in  his  senses  —  not  the  most  confirmed 
money-getter,  I  think,  when  he  stops  to  reflect — would 
say  that  money  was  more  than  a  means  to  an  end ;  would 
say  that  wealth,  however  useful  and  however  necessary, 
was  so  with  any  other  purpose  in  view  than  to  make 
possible  of  attainment  a  full  and  rich  human  life. 

Health,  comfort,  wealth — these  are  all  means,  ma- 
chinery by  which  to  accomplish  something ;  but  it  is  a 
sad  and  an  inglorious  mistake  to  stop  with  them,  to 
make  them  an  end  in  life,  to  sacrifice  higher  things  for 
them,  to  become  stunted  in  our  spiritual  being  for  the 
sake  of  them — as,  alas  !  many  do.  What  is  it  to  be 
sound  and  fair  in  body,  and  to  have  no  soul  ?  What  is 
it  to  be  successful  in  business,  a  prosperous  workman, 


THE   FIRST   THING   IN   LIFE. 


or  manufacturer,  or  merchant,  and  have  no  thoughts,  no 
interests,  beyond  one's  shop,  or  office,  or  counting- 
room  ? 

Granting  then  that  what  is  of  supreme  moment  in  life 
is  beyond  these  things,  shall  we  locate  it  in  some  defi- 
nite higher  attainment  such  as  intellectual  culture  or  the 
development  of  the  heart,  or  shall  we  try  to  settle 
whether  our  first  duty  is  to  ourselves  or  to  society,  or 
whether  science  or  art  or  religion  or  politics  is  the  most 
pressing  concern  of  man  ?  But  what  broadly-thinking 
person  will  deny  that  all  these  objects  are  of  impor- 
tance ?  I  confess  for  myself  it  seems  invidious  to  dis- 
tingnish  between  these  higher  interests  and  to  say  of 
some  of  them.  It  is  of  the  greatest  moment.  Science, 
art,  religion,  politics,  self- improvement  and  social  im- 
provement, and  the  cultivation  of  every  faculty  of  our 
being — all,  it  would  seem,  have  their  place. 

No,  I  do  not  care  to  draw  invidious  distinctions.  I 
do  not  even  wish  to  emphasize  morality  (in  the  ordinary 
limited  sense  of  the  word)  and  to  say  after  Matthew 
Arnold  that  conduct  is  three-fourths  of  life,  leaving  art 
and  science  to  divide  the  other  fourth  between  them. 
In  one  sense  science  is  as  necessary  to  man  as  morality 
is — ^yes,  as  necessary  to  morality  itself,  since  without 
science,  that  is,  without  light,  knowledge,  morality  may 
go  astra}'^,  and  we  may  be  blind  leaders  of  the  blind ; 
and  art  feeds  and  embodies  one  aspect  of  the  human 
spirit  as  truly  as  "morality"  does  another.  The  real 
good  for  man  is  no  one  thing ;  when  we  turn  the  matter 
over  in  our  minds  we  see  that  nothing  short  of  a  total 
perfection  can  satisfy  us — a  full,  all-round  development 
of  humanity,  a  perfect  social  state  and  every  faculty  of 
every  individual  in  play  in  it.     The  various  single  goods 


# 


THE    FIRST  THING    IN    LIFE. 


wc  may  rationally  strive  for  are  but  parts  of  this  or  steps 
towards  it  or  conditions  of  it.  They  are  good  just  as 
every  forward  movement  on  a  journey  is  good,  or  every 
preparation  for  it,  or  everything  that  outwardly  facili- 
tates it,  because  all  help  in  bringing  us  to  the  journey's 
end. 

What  I  would  propose  as  the  first  thing  in  life  is  just 
the  will  toward  this  all-inclusive  good  of  which  I  speak 
— the  aim  for  it.     For  here  are  really  two  things — the 
ideal  as  I  have  described  it,  unattained  and  far  off,  only 
a  possibility  as  yet,  and,  on  the  other  hand,  ourselves  as 
we  arc,  yet  capable  of  willing  and  striving  for  the  ideal. 
Of  course,  to  a  certain  extent  the  ideal  may  be  attained 
without  conscious  thought  or  effort  of  ours  by  the  co- 
operation of  causes  and  circumstances  outside  of  us; 
with   that,  or  nature's  action  in  the  matter,  we  have 
nothing  to  do.     But  to  a  large  extent  the  attainment  of 
the  wished  for  end  may  depend  upon  ourselves ;  and 
with  this  part  of  the  process  we  have  everything  to  do. 
According  as  we  think  now  and  act  and  will,  progress 
to  the  goal  may  be  easy  or  hard,  sure  or  uncertain, 
rapid  or  slow.     Nay,  since  the  end  of  which  I  have 
spoken  is  in  essence  a  spiritual  end,  is,  I  mean,  a  certain 
state  or  perfection  of  spiritual  beings  (for  this  is  what 
science,  art,  civilization,  justice  really  are),  it  must  be 
won  by  us  in  a  for  deeper  sense  than  it  can  be  given  to 
us.     Our  aim,  our  will,  our  effort,  become  thereby  in- 
dispensable.    Now  it  is  just  this  aim,  this  effort,  this 
good  will  on  which  I  wish  to  enlarge.     I  wish  to  show 
and  make  you  feel  that  it  is  the  greatest  thing  in  life — 
not  greatest  in  comparison  with  other  things,  but  great- 
est as  the  condition  of  all   other  things,  greatest  as 
the  fountain  from  which  they  flow,  itself  richer  than 


THE    FIRST   THING   IN    LIFE.  5 

any  single  product  of  it  can  possibly  be.  Practically 
it  is  a  very  simple  thing.  The  man  with  a  good  will 
may  be  far  from  perfection;  but  there  is  one  thing 
that  can  be  said  of  him,  and  that  is  that  when  he  is 
aware  of  anything  that  is  good,  he  instinctively  leans 
that  way  and  tries  for  it.  It  makes  little  difference  what 
the  good  thing  is — ^if  he  recognizes  it  as  better  than  he 
is  or  has  or  is  doing,  he  straightway  reaches  after  it,  if 
it  is  at  all  within  his  grasp.  The  good  may  differ  in 
detail  for  different  individuals.  We  are  in  different  cir- 
cumstances, at  different  stages  of  the  journey,  so  to 
speak.  But  the  good  will  is  the  same  in  all ;  it  may  be 
identically*  the  same  for  the  man  of  the  largest  knowl- 
edge, of  the  finest  character,  and  for  him  who  is  but  tak- 
ing his  first  steps  in  wisdom  and  in  virtue  and  is  stum- 
bling at  that.  In  both  cases,  in  all  cases,  it  is  an  upward 
look,  an  onward  effort — and  this  alone  it  is  that  has  vital, 
absolute  significance.  For,  think  of  it,  if  one  is  intent 
on  what  is  good  (1.  ^.,  because  it  is  good),  it  follows  that 
while  he  may  seek  one  thing  now,  he  will  seek  another 
thing  at  another  time  and  still  another  at  another,  and  so 
run  through  the  whole  scale  of  what  is  good,  as  the 
opportunity  and  need  arise.  If  a  child  learns  to  do 
what  is  right  simply  because  it  is  right  and  he  ought  to 
do  it,  he  will  in  the  same  way  do  what  is  right  when  he 
is  a  man,  though  the  particular  things  be  different. 

There  is  great  misunderstanding  about  doing  what  is 
right  because  it  is  right  or  loving  what  is  good  because 
it  is  good.  It  is  sometimes  spoken  of  as  an  irrational 
thing.  But  without  going  into  the  whole  question,  I 
think  it  can  easily  be  shown  that  there  is  a  sense  in 
which  doing  or  seeking  what  is  good  because  it  is  good 
is  reasonable.     For  granted  that  a  thing  is  really  good 


n 


O  THE    FIRST   THING   IN   LIFE. 

(either  in  itself  or  with  reference  to  some  end  beyond 
it),  it  may  be  regarded  in  either  of  two  ways— either 
as   to   what   particular   thing   it    is   {e.  g,,    learning  a 
lesson  or  casting  a  vote   or   overthrowing   some   op- 
pression),  or  as   regards  the  general  form   which   we 
give   to   it  when   we  say  it   is   a   good   thing   to   do. 
Many  different   things   may   be   alike  in   being   good, 
though  they  are  very  unlike  one  another.     Hence  by  a 
process  of  abstraction  and  generalization  (which  even  a 
child  is  familiar  with,  though  it  may  not  know  them  by 
these  names),  we  may  separate  out  the  goodness  of  the 
actions  and  consider  it  apart  from  the  particular  content 
with  which  in  each  case  it  is  associated.     In  a  word,  we 
may  form  the  general  idea  of  good  (and  the  same  is 
true  of  right),  and  this  idea,  like  any  other  idea,  may 
become  a  ground  of  action.     Though  we  don't  wish  to 
do  a  certain  thing,  yet  if  we  come  to  realize  that  it 
would  be  a  good  thing  our  aversion  may  be  overcome, 
as,  for  example,  when  we  take  a  disagreeable  medicine 
or  witness  for  some  unpopular  cause  in  public.     The 
good  simply  as  good  may  come  to  have  a  certain  power 
over  us ;  once  convinced  that  a  thing  is  right,  we  may 
not  need  to  have  anything  more  said  to  us— we  will  to 
do  it.     There  is  surely  nothing  unintelligible  or  unrea- 
sonable  about  this— it  is  not  inconsistent  with  a  thou- 
sand  and  one  considerations  to  determine  what  is  good 
or  what  \s  right,  it  only  means  that  when  this  is  once 
determined  we  ask  no  more  — we  are  ready   to  act. 
Hence,  while  learning  a  lesson  may  be  in  itself  no  rea- 
son for  casting  a  vote,  and  while  casting  a  vote  may  be 
in  itself  no  reason  for  remedying  a  social  injustice,  if  we 
have  learned  a  lesson  in  childhood  because  it  was  the 
right  and  good  thing  to  do,  this  may  be  a  reason  for 


THE    FIRST   THING    IN    LIFE.  J 

casting  a  vote  now  if  it  is  also  the  right  and  good 
thing  to  do,  and  in  fact  it  is  a  reason  for  doing  every 
right  and  good  thing  under  the  sun  (that  is  in  our 
power),  whether  it  be  aiding  some  workingmen  who 
are  struggling  at  a  disadvantage  or  rising  against  a 
political  boss  or  working  for  '*  a  parliament  of  man,  a 
federation  of  the  world."  If  you  do  anything  that  is 
good,  really  because  it  is  good,  you  are  in  consistency 
bound  to  do  everything  that  is  good  that  you  can  do. 
And  this  is  what  I  mean  by  the  good  will — ^the  will 
bound  to  the  good,  loyal  to  it,  taking  it  as  a  principle, 
and  so  seeking  all  good,  or  if  it  ever  fails  and  lapses,  as 
indeed  it  often  may,  picking  itself  up,  righting  itself, 
asserting  itself  anew. 

This  good  will,  rationally  speaking,  cannot  stop  short 
of  aiming  at  that  total  development  of  humanity  of 
which  I  spoke  at  first,  with  all  the  riches  of  science  and 
art  and  civilization  and  a  perfect  social  state  it  implies ; 
possibly,  when  the  metaphysics  of  the  matter  are  thor- 
oughly thought  out,  we  cannot  avoid  feeling  that  this 
good  will  is  but  our  human  response  to  another  and  a 
Higher  Will—"  the  Will  that  asks  our  will,"  as  Mrs. 
Humphrey  Ward  says — ^the  Will  that  is  the  ground 
and  spring  of  all  the  progress  that  is  in  the  world ;  but 
meantime  one  may  have  this  good  will  who  never  heard 
of  the  "total  development  of  humanity"  and  who  has 
no  consciousness  of  a  Higher  Will.  The  good  will  may 
be  in  all,  whatever  their  age  (so  they  can  discriminate 
ideas  at  all),  whatever  their  circumstances,  whatever 
their  stage  of  culture,  however  little  or  however  great 
their  opportunities  and  however  little  or  however  great 
their  power  to  make  use  of  the  opportunities.  It  is  not 
measured  by  what  we  do,  but  by  what  we  would  do  if 


1  -»-'■' 


il 


THE   FIRST  THING   IN  LIFE. 

we  could-not  even  by  what  we  are,  but  by  what  we 
want  to  be.     Ineffectual  it  may  be.  and  yet  rell.     BlL 

ir      T^r'  '^^^  '*^  °^  -'-•     I»  -^y  even  go 
astray  or  lead  astray,  and  yet  never  need  conversion 
but  only  enhghtenment.     Its  ve^.  errors  may  be  worth 
more  than  the  correct  behavior  of  others  whL  s  with 
out  a  ground  of  principle 

what  I  mean  by  the  good  will,  let  us  see  how  deep  and 
how  great  a  thing  it  is  in  life  and  how  necessar/S  cul 

nro^.T"'  "''  '''''  °^  ->'  °f  the  single  defi- 
nrte  objects  about  which  we  concern  ou«elves     What  a 

spnng  of  life  and  action  anyone  has  in  him  who  ht  a 

good  W.1I !     Contest  him  with  an  indifferent  perl 

one  who  has  no  preferences,  no  choices,  and  To  fedS 

Aat  he  must  do  one  thing  and  not  another!     It  tf 

shir  inert    r  '""  "•='  ^^^'^  go.  or  rather  fl 
sheer  mert.a,  they  are  apt  to  go.  as  they  have  gone  or  ^ 

other,  go  about  them.    They  have  no  originative  power 

Aey  do  not  lead  the  world  onward.     The  world TfuU 

Of  people  who  have  nothing  positive  about  them  who 

therfin-     "^  T'  ^^'^  *•"•'  °f  ^''^'""Ives  and  of 

Sow  hT      '  ^"'^^^''  ''"*  °^  "«'^  or  nothing  beyond 
How  different  with  those  who  have  a  t^^a  oeyona. 

whatever  their  reason  discerns  to  L        /  '''P°"''  *° 
is  enough  if  .  ..  aiscems  to  be  good ;  to  whom  it 

w  enough  If  a  cause  is  m  the  line  of  proeress  tn  m,i, 
them  ready  and  glad  to  help  it !     It  does^  J^tteT'! 
much  what  the  good  thing  is_it  mav  be  the  T^- 
^a  hospital,  it  may  be  th'e  endowl^^^c^VunivS' 1 
may  be  some  plan  for  beautifying  the  citv  TtT     k 
some  needed  political  or  socii  fefor^^lt  pelTe  ^f 
good  W.I..  generous  and  ready  and  loyal,  are  tff  :ho 


THE   FIRST   THING   IN   LIFE.  9 

make  it  go.     Nothing  can  atone  for  the  lack  of  this 
aggressive  quality.     Health  and  wealth  do  not  take  the 
place   of   it;    scientific    attainments   do   not   take   the 
place  of  it ;  artistic  capabilities  do  not  take  the  place  of 
it--for  one  may  stop  with  these  things  and  have  no 
spring  of  action  beyond  them.     Nay,  with  the  lack  of  a 
good  will,  these  things  themselves  may  be  shorn  of  the 
blessing  they  might  otherwise  be  to  the  world,  and  may 
even  work  harm.     Science  and  invention  may  of  them- 
selves make  it  possible  to  do  injury  to  the  race  as  well 
as  good ;  even  art  may  render  effeminate  and  pander  to 
what  is  base  as  well  as  to  what  is  noble ;  and  what  we 
call  civilization  may  raise  as  many  problems  as  it  may 
solve  if  it  is  a  one-sided  thing  and  is  not  guided,  in- 
spired,  by  moral  purpose.     All  other  things  seem  to 
require  direction ;  good  will  is  the  director.     If  things 
do  not  come  from  a  pure  source,  they  require  continual 
righting  and  correcting.     There  is  deep  truth  in  Emer- 
son's contention  that  the  moral  sentiment  "  lies  at  the 
foundation  of  society." 

I  do  not  forget  that  the  good  purpose  may  go  astray, 
may  make  mistakes;  that  intelligence  or  science  is 
as  necessary  as  good  will.  But  this  hardly  means  that 
intellligence  or  science  can  be  a  guide  of  itself;  and,  on 
the  other  hand,  if  the  will  for  good  is  strong,  it  will  in 
time  correct  its  mistakes,  and  beget  intelligence  or  sci- 
ence—its very  will  for  what  is  good  will  make  it  do  so, 
to  the  end  that  it  may  really  accomplish  what  is  good, 
just  as  the  good  physician  will  out  of  love  for  his  pa- 
tients be  driven  to  observe  and  study  and  find  out  true 
remedies.  Love  or  good  will  does  not  take  the  place 
of  knowledge,  but  it  may  lead  to  the  acquirement  of 
knowledge  as  nothing  else  can.     It  may  make  one  a 


BHP 


lO 


THE    FIRST   THING    IN    LIFE. 


pupil  and  always  a  pupil  of  whatever  observation  or  ex- 
perience or  history  have  to  teach. 

I  do  not  forget,  either,  that  good  will  without  good 
acts  is  of  little  value.     But  it  is  a  spurious  good  will 
that  does  not  pass  into  acts.     Real  good  will  can  no 
more  be  hindered  from  issuing  in  good  deeds  than  a 
fountain  can  be  kept  from  flowing.     It  is  but  the  idea 
and  the  anticipation  and  the  purpose  of  good  deeds. 
Of  course,  I  say  all  this  on  the  supposition  that  there 
arc  no  external  hindrances ;  sickness  and  other  causes 
may  keep  a  man  from  acting,  but  where  a  man  can  act 
and  does  not,  this  really  shows  not  that  there  can  be  a 
separation  between  the  intention  and  the  deed,  but  that 
the  intention  or  good  will  did  not  exist,  that  it  was  a 
mere  sentiment,  or  half-indulged  wish,  that  some  other 
wish  or  disposition  was  stronger  than  it.     Hell  may  be 
paved  with  good  intentions  in  the  sense  of  idle  wishes 
and  empty  resolutions  and  watery  sentiments,  but  it  is 
not  paved  with  good  will — even  if,  owing  to  accidental 
circumstances,   the   will  was   not   carried    into    effect. 
Good  will,  we  may  more  truly  say,  makes  the  very 
climate  of  heaven ;  it  is  that  without  which  good  acts 
themselves,  externally  considered,  lose  all  their  savor 
and  worth  and  sweetness. 

To  awaken  or  quicken  the  good  will  in  a  man  is  thus 
the  deepest,  the  most  radical  service  you  can  do  him. 
It  is  more  than  giving  him  knowledge,  for  it  is  stirring 
the  disposition  to  use  knowledge  and  to  get  knowledge 
for  himself.  It  is  more  than  persuading  him  to  a  good 
act— it  is  putting  in  him  a  principle  from  which  good 
acts  will  come  of  themselves.  It  is  more  than  making 
him  temperate  or  truthful  or  chaste — it  is  giving  him  a 
spirit  that  will  lead  him  to  acquire  these  and  all  other 


P 


THE    FIRST   THING   IN    LIFE. 


II 


Virtues.  For  it  is  one  and  the  same  spirit  which,  as  Em- 
erson says,  is  differently  named  love,  justice,  temper- 
ance, in  its  different  applications,  only  as  the  ocean 
receives  different  names  on  the  several  shores  which  it 
washes.  It  is  surely  more  to  open  up  a  well  of  life  in  a 
person  than  to  ^\\^  him  a  few  bucketfuls  of  water,  how- 
ever pure  and  wholesome  the  water  may  be.  This  is 
the  profound  meaning  of  the  old  doctrine  of  regenera- 
tion, and  hence  arises  the  well-founded  distrust  of  the 
old  religious  order  as  to  the  efficacy  of  any  mere 
preaching  of  morality,  in  the  sense  of  outward  acts  and 
habits.  Nothing  will  answer  but  a  new  creature. 
Hence,  too,  the  secondary  nature  of  temperance  soci- 
eties and  white  cross  societies  and  organizations  to  pro- 
mote special  measures  and  special  reforms.  There  is 
wanted  a  sea  of  good  will  to  float  them.  They  are  nec- 
essary, but  something  else  is  more  necessary  still — ^the 
power,  the  readiness  to  go  along  these  lines,  just  as  a 
head  of  water  when  once  made  descends  and  goes  easily 
and  naturally,  of  itself  as '  we  say,  along  a  dozen  differ- 
ent channels  to  enrich  the  land  or  turn  the  wheels  of 
industry. 

And  yet,  may  it  not  be  said,  however  great  the  good 
will  is,  is  not  the  attainment  of  the  ends  to  which  the 
good  will  itself  is  directed  the  greatest  thing?  We 
ethical  teachers  are  sometimes  good-naturedly  warned 
against  the  danger  of  making  morality  an  end  in  and 
of  itself.*  And  I  recognize  that  morality  is  a  means 
rather  than  an  end,  that  the  good  will  or  purpose  aims 
always  at  some  good  beyond  itself  And  perhaps  it 
would  have  to  be  admitted  that  if  all  the  good  we  can 

*E.  g. ,  by  Dr.  F.  E.  White,  in  International  Journal  of  Ethics^  July, 
i895»  p.  486. 


!:i 


ta 


THE   FIRST  THING   IN   LIFE. 


conceive  of  were  realized,  there  would  no  longer  be  any 
occasion  for  a  good  will.     If  I  may  use  such  an  illus- 
tration without  irreverence,  I  suppose  that  God  could 
not  be  said  to  have  a  good  will  or  purpose— all  that  he 
could  desire  he  is   conceived  of  as   having  or  being 
already ;  he  is  the  plenitude,  the  perfection  of  being- 
can  want  nothing  or  will  nothing.     Of  course,  he  may 
have  a  will  or  purpose  for  his  creatures,  but  not  for 
himself— there  is   nothing   beyond   him.     Now,   if  we 
had  all  we  desire  (or   could   conceivably  desire),  the 
good  will  might  cease,  for  the  good  itself  is  the  ulti- 
mate end.     But  need  I  ask  my  fellow  human  beings 
how  the  case  actually  stands  with  us  ?     Surely  we  have 
not  all  the   good  we  desire,  and  when  we  do  for  a 
moment  compass  what  we  want  we  generally  soon  find 
that  there  is  some  other  good  that  we  have  not  attained. 
We  are  individually,  and  humanity  is  collectively,  like 
people  climbing  some  mountain  height— we  think  we 
have  gone  a  considerable  way,  and  lo  !  the  summit  is  far 
on  beyond  us.     Nay,  in  humanity's  ascent  there  seems 
to  be  no  summit.    We  are  always  reaching  beyond  any- 
thing we  have  attained  to,  and  it  may  be  the  heavens 
will  witness  our  race,  when  the  term  of  its  tenancy  on 
the  earth  is  reached,  still  stretching  out  its  hands  to 
what  is  beyond.     Perhaps,  after  all,  we  are  children  of 
Infinity,  never  content  and  never  meant  to  be  content  ; 
at  least  this  seems  to  be  the  character  of  some  races  of 
men.     The  insatiableness  of  the  human  mind,  the  insa- 
tiableness  of  the   human   heart,  the   insatiableness   of 
human  energy  and  will,  we,  at  least,  who  live  in  our 
Western  world  know,  for  we  have  the  evidence  of  it  in 
our  science,  in  our  social  aspirations  and  in  our  endless 
and  ever-renewed  conquests  over  nature. 


( 


THE    FIRST   THING   IN   LIFE. 


«3 


But  if  this  is  so,  the  good  will  has  a  practically  limit- 
itless  significance.  It  is  not  indeed  greater  than  all 
good,  but  it  is  greater  than  any  good  we  know.  The 
scientific  instinct  is  more  valuable  than  any  present  sci- 
entific acquirements  ;*  it  would  cease  if  all  knowledge 
were  attained  ;  but  as  things  are  it  is  the  very  means  of 
of  opening  new  and  wider  fields.  Better  than  any  truth 
is  the  love  of  truth.  So  I  say,  better  than  any  good  is 
the  love  of  good — greater  than  any  attainment  is  the 
good  will ;  practically  and  taking  things  as  we  know 
them,  this  and  nothing  less  is  the  root  principle  of  prog- 
ress, which  ever  leads  man  on.  In  our  daily  lives  we 
reach  one  stage  of  virtue  and  then  we  find  there  is  an- 
other beyond  us.  We  solve  one  intellectual  problem 
and  find  ourselves  conducted  to  others.  In  our  social 
relations  we  accomplish  one  reform  and  then  discern 
that  another  is  needed.  Modern  political  society  got 
freedom,  liberty  to  govern  itself,  with  the  French  Revo- 
lution and  our  War  for  Independence ;  and  now  it  finds 
it  has  to  get  something  else,  if  it  is  to  continue  or  even 
to  have  peace  where  it  stands.  It  is  not  enough  in  any 
department  of  life  to  cling  to  what  is :  we  must  have 
more,  and  the  bottom  impulsion  to  the  more  is  what  I 
mean  by  the  good  will.  The  very  thing  we  set  so  high 
a  value  upon — character — may  be  narrow,  and  want 
life,  impulse,  plasticity,  to  make  it  truly  great.  There 
are  those  we  call  excellent  people  in  a  way,  and  yet  how 
small  the  way  is !  For  example,  they  never  lie,  they 
never  steal,  they  never  over-eat  or  over-drink,  they 
never  commit  adultery,  and  yet  they  care  feebly  for  pub- 


*  "  The  scientific  spirit  is  of  more  value  than  its  products  and  irration- 
ally held  truths  may  be  more  harmful  than  reasoned  errors." — Huxley,  in 
Science  and  Culture y  p.  319. 


H 


THE    FIRST  THING   IN   LIFE. 


lie  affairs  and  are  poor  citizens.    Or  they  may  be  among 
what  are   called   good   citizens  and  yet  without  any 
deep  sense  of  social  justice.     Their  goodness  has  got 
petnfied;   it  has  no  longer  a  living  background   and 
spring  of  good  will.     And  because  they  rest  in  and  are 
contented  with  what  of  virtue  they  have,  it  may  be 
actually  easier  sometimes  to  wake  up  some  person  who 
has  httle  or  no  virtue  at  all  than  one  of  your  model 
husbands,  model  business  men,  or  model  citizens.    Char- 
acter Itself,  the  best  and  solidest  framework  of  virtues 
you  can  get,  needs  the  inspiring  quality  of  a  good  will 
behind  It  to  keep  it  alive,  to  keep  it  open  and  plastic,  to 
make  it  responsive  to  the  unattained,  to  make  it  impos- 
sible to  say  of  its  possessor  that  he  is  "  dead  in  right- 
eousness," as  others  may  be  dead  in  their  sins.     Yes 
even  greater  than  character  in  any  such  form  as  we 
ordmanly  find  it.  is  the  good  will  that  makes  character 
and  that  c^  make  ever  a  better  and  a  better  one 

One   thought  more.      Who  does  not  feel  that  the 
strong  direction  of  the  will  toward  a  worthy  object  is 
Itself  a  good  thing,  just  as  strong  and  hardy  muscles 
are  themselves  admirable  as  part  of  our  idea  of  a  per- 
fect physical  frame  ?     This  is  the  significance  of  Les- 
sing  s  famous  saying.  I  suppose,  that  if  God  held  out 
truth     in  one  hand  and  "  seek  after  truth  "  in  another, 
he  should  m  all  humility  take  "seek  after  truth  "     To 
have  the  truth  is  great,  but  to  ^ain  the  truth  is  somehow 
greater.     There  is  a  certain  glory  in  the  development  of 
human  faculties  themselves-it  may  be  even  better  at 
any  one  time  not  to  have  the  truth,  or  to  have  a  wrong 
Idea  about  it.  than  to  have  it,  however  perfectly,  without 

ZT^      u  ''"'■  ^"^-      ^°'  ""y  °^"  P^rt.    I   feel  this 
deeply  about  the  striving  of  a  good  will,  and  I  could 


A 


THE   FIRST   THING    IN   LIFE. 


15 


*     t 


paraphrase  Lessing's  language  by  saying  if  God  held 
out  to  me  "  good  "  in  one  hand  and  "  strive  for  good  " 
in  another,  I  should  take  "  strive  for  good ;"  for  I  know 
of  no  other  way  in  which  the  good  could  become  really 
mine,  in  which  it  could  become  inwoven  and  ingrained 
into  the  fibers  of  my  inward  being.  In  fact,  I  will 
waive  all  reserves  (and  it  may  go  as  a  personal  confession, 
whether  you  can  agree  to  it  or  not,)  and  say  that  to  me, 
of  all  mortal  excellencies,  daring  in  a  good  cause  is  the 
greatest ;  that  the  good  will  or  purpose  is  the  sublimest 
thing  I  know  of;  that  it  is  this  or  the  signs  of  it  that 
readiest  move  me  to  tears  and  to  admiration ;  that  wit, 
that  genius,  that  talent,  that  achievement  even,  may  all 
leave  me  cold,  but  that  the  strong  purpose  of  a  good 
man  touches  me,  awes  me,  in  an  indescribable  manner, 
and  does  so  no  less,  or  shall  I  say  more,  when  I  see  it 
laboring  in  the  face  of  difficulties  and  contending  against 
great  odds. 

And  now,  friends,  whether  you  can  assent  to  just  this 
or  not,  if  you  agree  at  all  to  what  I  have  been  saying, 
you  will  admit  that  two  things  follow.  The  first  is,  that 
all  of  us  have  a  question  to  address  to  ourselves — 
namely,  have  we  this  good  will  or  purpose  in  our  hearts  ? 
No  one  can  know,  no  one  can  test  this  but  ourselves. 
And  even  for  us  it  may  be  sometimes  hard  to  tell.  We 
have  good  wishes,  but  have  we  a  good  will  ?  We  do 
not  mean  to  do  wrong,  but  do  we  mean  to  do  right,  all 
that  is  right,  right  on  principle  ?  It  is  a  hard  saying, 
but  unless  we  do,  we  have  not  really  a  good  will.  If  we 
willingly  make  exceptions  we  are  lost.  If  we  pick  and 
choose,  if  we  say  this  I  will  do,  but  that  is  hard,  distaste- 
ful, and  I  will  not  even  try,  we  are  not  really  bound  to 
duty,  but  only,  however  we  may  disguise  it,  to  our  own 


^X_V- 


THE    FIRST   THING    IN    LIFE. 

pleasure.  All  that  are  called  our  duties  may  not  be 
duties,  and  the  settling  that  is  an  intellectual  process  ; 
but  when  we  know  what  our  duty  is,  there  is  nothing 
under  heaven  but  to  do  it— at  least  try  to  do  it— how- 
ever repellant  it  may  be,  however  much  it  taxes  us  to 
make  the  effort. 

Secondly,  we  see  the  place  and  the  function  of  an 
Ethical  Society.     Such  a  society  is  not  formed  to  culti- 
vate any  one  virtue,  but  the  germ  of  all  the  virtues. 
The  morality  it  furthers  is  a  life,  a  process,  an  unfolding 
—not  a  good  habit  or  two,  but  a  principle  that  will  not 
allow  one  to  rest  till  he  reaches  the  stature  of  a  perfect 
man  ;  not  a  reform  or  two,  but  something  that  will  not 
allow  us  to  rest  short  of  a  perfect  society.     It  is  a  cer- 
tain spirit  we  try  to  feed  men  by,  it  is  a  certain  temper 
and  spirit  we  try  to  develop  in  private  hearts,  and,  so  far 
as  we  can,  in  the  sentiment  and  life  of  the  community. 
Let  us.  I  pray  you,  dedicate  ourselves  afresh  to  this 
task,  and  more  and  more  as  the  years  go  on  may  our 
Ethical  Movement  elevate  and  refine  the  temper  and 
spirit  of  men  and  hasten  the  advent  of  a  happier  order 
of  society ! 


<fi^ 


ETHICAL    RELIGION 


By  UliUittm  m    Sttltei* 


Cloth,  332  pages.    $1.25  postpaid. 


I. 
II. 
III. 

IV. 

v. 

VI. 

vn. 
vni. 

IX. 

X. 

XI. 

xn. 
xiu. 

XIV. 

XV. 

XVI. 

xvn. 


CONTENTS 

ETHICAL  RELIGION. 

THE  IDEAL  ELEMENT  IN  MORALITY. 

WHAT  IS  A  MORAL  ACTION  ? 

IS  THERE  A  HIGHER  LAW? 

IS  THERE  ANYTHING  ABSOLUTE  ABOUT  MORALITY  ? 

DARWINISM  IN  ETHICS. 

THE  SOCIAL  IDEAL. 

THE  RIGHTS  OF  LABOR. 

PERSONAL  MORALITY. 

ON  SOME  FEATURES  OF  THE  ETHICS  OF  JESUS. 

DOES  THE   ETHICS  OF  JESUS  SATISFY  THE  NEEDS  OF  THE 
TIME? 

GOOD  FRIDAY  FROM  A  MODERN  STANDPOINT. 

THE  SUCCESS  AND  THE  FAILURE  OF  PROTESTANTISM. 

WHY  UNITATIANISM  FAILS  TO  SATISFY. 

THE  BASIS  OF  THE  ETHICAL  MOVEMENT. 

THE  SUPREMACY  OF  ETHICS. 

THE  TRUE  BASIS  OF  RELIGIOUS  UNION. 


UV' 


The  above  book  will  be  sent  on  receipt  of  price  by 

S.  BURNS  WESTON,  1305  Arch  Street,  Philadelphia 


/ 


Joui^NAH  OF  Ethics 


OCTOBER  NUMBER -Vol.  IX,  No.  i. 

THE   PARTING  OF  THE  WAYS   IN  THE   FOREIGN   POLICY  OF  THE 
UNITED  STATES.     Fklix  Adlkr,  New  York 

A  MORAL  FROM  ATHENIAN  HISTORY.    Bbrnard  Bosanqubt,  London. 

BELLIGERENT  DISCUSSION  AND  TRUTH-SEEKING.    Richard  C.  Cabot, 
Boston. 

LUXURY  AND  EXTRAVAGANCE.    John  Davidson.  University  of  New  Brunt- 
wick,  Canada 

SEX  IN  CRIME.    Frances  Alicb  Kbllor,  University  of  Chicago. 


JANUARY  NUMBER— Vol.  IX.  No.  a 

THE  TSAR'S  RESCRIPT.    T.  J.  Lawrbncb,  Downing  College,  Cambridge,  Eng. 

COSMOPOLITAN  DUTIES.    John  McCunn,  University  College.  Uvcrpool. 

"THE  WILL  TO  BELIEVE"  AND  THE  DUTY  TO  DOUBT.     Dickinson  S. 
Miller,  Philadelphia. 

TH IIDEA  OF  PROGRESS.    J.  S.  Mackenzie,  Univenitr  College,  Cardiff,  Wales. 

SOME  AIMS  OF  MORAL  EDUCATION.    Frank  Chapman  Sharp,  University 
of  Wisconsin. 

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